Saturday, November 5, 2011

#LisaIrwin :#Schiller - Judge Robert Eckels likes to play a game and get publicity. He wants to pretend he is holier than thou." (2005)

Eckels, saying fellow commissioners were awarding sweetheart deals to companies they were connected to, tried to pass a full-disclosure rule. Radack, who had previously undisclosed ties to a developer in his precinct, shot back in the Chronicle,

"Robert Eckels likes to play a game and get publicity. He wants to pretend he is holier than thou."

But Eckels has found himself under similar scrutiny. While he was still a legislator, his fiancée and future wife, Jet Winkley, was a lobbyist for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. (Eckels said he avoided sponsoring Metro bills because of that relationship.)

In 2000, the Houston Pressreported that Jack Rains, whom Eckels had unsuccessfully tried to keep as sports authority chair, gave Eckels's daughter 400 shares of E-Stamp Inc., then valued at $8,000. Eckels described the gift as an innocent gesture from an old family friend. Then there's the recent heat from many residents over the roughly $40,000 that Eckels and his colleagues felt fit to spend on appealing a federal ruling to remove the Star of Hope's Bible sculpture from in front of the civil courts building. Fighting for justice, or currying votes?